Snapchat's "Discover" is yet another effort by the company to monetize its services. Photo: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Patrick O'Rourke

Published: January 27, 2015 - 4:22 PM

Updated: January 28, 2015 - 1:18 PM

Snapchat’s new Discover feature is set to allow users to see content posted by brands like ESPN, CNN, Vice and Warner Music, moving the disposable image-sharing platform in a new advertising-focused direction.

According to a recent blog post on the social network’s official blog, these new “stories” will feature “full screen photos and videos, awesome long form layouts, and gorgeous advertising.”

Discover seems like it will act as an always-on Snapchat “channel guide,” focused on delivering users advertising and is the largest update to Snapchat’s services since its launching in 2011. It’s also the latest effort by Snapchat to monetize its user base, offering brands a way to connect with a younger audience. Monetization has long been an obstacle for many popular social networks, particularly Twitter.

Many companies are already using Snapchat’s Discover in a variety of ways. For example, Comedy Central’s channel features quick teasers from content like The Daily Show, Broad City, as well as Wordkaholics. ESPN has also posted a collection of highlights from various sports leagues.

Since its launch Snapchat has been a social network focused on closed, friend-specific sharing, requiring users to have their contacts phone numbers before being able to share content.

Then a few months ago the company introduced “Our Stories,” a new way for users to interact and share content with users not in their contact list. Out Stories gave users a collaborative timeline, allowing them to aggregate content related to a show or event, along with other Snapchat users. Our Stories actually works very similar to Twitter’s — as well as pretty much every other social network — hashtag feature, aggregating a content focused on a single event in one continuous stream.

The addition of Our Stories appeared to be a precursor to the launch of Discover. The new service will also apparently offer users a way to purchase music, movies and other products, effectively cutting out the need for a retail website and moving Snapchat, a service that was once only focused on sharing images, into the world of online payments.